The First reading at a glance, feels like God is bent on destroying the Israelites because of their worship of the Golden Calf. An interesting question that can be asked here is, ‘Did God not know what was going to happen, once He rescued them and brought them to Sinai?’ In fact He did. And that is what He is conveying to Moses, in this text. Moses pleads with God giving every reason God should not destroy the Israelites. But God does not relent. Only when Moses speaks to God about the Covenants He has with the Patriarchs that He relents. But is God human to relent. Nah! this is only a nuance of the author. But the understanding that God is giving Moses is that He always knew the fallibility of the Hebrews, and therefore He chose them. His idea was to help them/us understand that everyone is redeemable, if they desire with all their heart, to associate with God. So He choose the worst of the worst, so that others may see and hope and believe. The life of Abraham testifies to this.
But in calling the Hebrews to Himself, He also made covenants with them, so that when they should fail, His justice should not destroy them. In a way of saying, He bound himself before hand in his mercy and compassion, so that He/His Justice does not destroy the Hebrews. And this is what God helps Moses and us realise. After this Incident, when Moses will ask to be able to see God’s face one last time, God will pass by Him, and this is the understanding that is uttered
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
but who will by no means clear the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children,
to the third and the fourth generation.”
By no means today’s readings are indictments, but reason to hope and believe and trust God. If today you hear his voice, harden not your heart.